India To Join the Expeditionary Era
The rhetoric regarding the possible sale of the USS Nashville (LPD 13) to India has all but disappeared over the last few months. We observe this bit of news might explain why.
Having cleared the decks for the manufacture of large aircraft carriers indigenously, the navy is now proposing to venture into building huge ship landing docks to give it the capability to carry heavily armed troops and armaments over oceans.The report did not include information regarding the desired size of this future amphibious force, but it did drop a few names regarding who the contenders are.
The Naval Design Bureau has now finalised plans to manufacture over 20,000 tonne displacement landing ship docks patterned on INS Jalashva, which it recently acquired from the US Navy.
In order to build the country's first ever blue water troop carrier, the navy is looking at a number of designs, including American and French.Interesting. The press may not be accurate in reporting "patterned on INS Jalashva" at 20,000 tons, but it would depend on requirements. It is interesting this comes the day after a visit by South Korean navy chief Admiral Jung Ok-keun, who no doubt discussed his own developing blue water expeditionary capability. It is very possible the Dokdo class is part of the competition.
Northrop Grumman was showing off the LPD-17 in India earlier this year, and the Mistral was involved in exercises with India just prior being ordered to the Myanmar coast following the cyclone disaster. We look forward to observing which metrics a growing regional power like India finds most appealing for a future expeditionary force in this competition.
